Fred W. Death, Obituary/Death NoticePorter County obituaries and death notices . . . .
Fred W. Death
COMES HERE TO COMMIT SUICIDE
(From Monday's Daily)
Fred W. Imme, 24 years old, for four years or more a student at Valparaiso university, returned here Saturday night from Chicago for the express purpose of committing suicide, it is believed, and to this end he succeeded, in the room of Paul Klintenberg, in Spindler hall, while Klintenberg and Leonard Hunt saw him do the deed. From a 32-caliber revovler he sent a bullet through his brain, and death was instantaneous. His dead body rolled from the couch he occupied to the floor before the two young men present could spring to his side.
Imme came here from Chicago in the evening. While in Klintenberg's room he reclined on the couch while conversing quietly. Slowly he pulled the gun. Hunt sat on a table; Klintenberg on a stool. Since Imme had been known to make threats on his own life, the fear entered their hearts that this might be his aim now, and they sat trying to devise a way by which the weapon might be taken from him with the least danger to themselves, and at the same time the salvation of Imme. But Imme suddenly placed the gun to his temple and fired. The short passed through the other side and imbedded itself in the couch. Then the body bounced off in the last death struggle while the two young men stood horrified. Coroner Loren E. Lewis was notified at once, and the remains were ordered taken to the LePell undertaking rooms.
It is possible that brooding over the most insulting letter a man ever received may have caused Imme to choose Saturday night for death. On his person Coroner Lewis found this letter, written by H. H. Johnson, of Chicago. The writer had taken pains to pen several sheets in a fine hand, that he might heap insult, abuse and remorse upon Imme almost beyond the imagination of man. The letter in itself was a work of art, if art can be applied to such matters. Nut, boob, infant, fool, and all the epithets that could be raked from the fertile brain of the author had been called into the letter to revile Imme because he asked for the return of a $5.00 loan.
One of the last acts of Imme was to write a postal card to his father, Prof. R. Imme, of Berlin, Germany. "I received your letter and check, for which I thank you," it ran in part. "It will not be necessary to send more money, as I have prospects of a good position." In another note, left to a friend, Imme told of his suicide intent.
Imme had always been peculiar. Despondency was one of his chief traits, and once he wrote an essay of melancholia. Twice before he had tried to commit suicide, but failed because of the intervention of friends. He chose ether once, and another time chloroform. That he was slightly deranged is not doubted by anyone who knew him.
Imme has become involved occasionally in slight trouble with the police department, and, it is claimed, this same trouble he encountered in Chicago. He was usually excused because of his supposed weakness. Money matters could have played no part in the suicide, as on Imme's person the coroner found over $100.
No definite plans for the funeral have been made. No one except for Coroner Lewis is looking after the disposition of the remains, which are lying today in the LePell undertaking parlors. A classmate of Imme in the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery came here from Chicago last night and was greatly grieved over the untimely end of his friend, who was in the classroom only two days before, he said. Prof. O. P. Kinsey took the address of the father in Berlin for the purpose of writing him of the sad affair.
Newspaper: The Porter County Vidette
Date of Publication: March 15, 1916
Volume Number:
Issue Number:
Page: 3
Column(s): 4
Key to Newspaper Publication Locations:
Newspapers Published in Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana
Chesterton Tribune
The Tribune
Westchester Tribune
Newspapers Published in Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana
Porter County Vidette
Practical Observer
Valparaiso Practical Observer
Vidette and Republic
Western Ranger
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Obituary/death notice transcribed by Steven R. Shook